Natalia Veselnitskaya didn’t have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and when the Russian lawyer met with Trump’s people her focus was not on the 2016 campaign.

By Lucy Komisar

A “key event” described in the Mueller Report is the Trump Tower meeting where a Russian lawyer met with the president’s son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Russiagaters have been obsessed with the meeting, saying it was the smoking gun to prove collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to steal the 2016 election. Months after Mueller concluded that there was no collusion at all, the obsession has switched to “obstruction of justice,” which is like someone being apprehended for resisting arrest without committing any other crime.

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Trump team members in Trump Tower, and in background her interpreter, Anatoli Samochornov, who was also at the meeting. (photo: Lucy Komisar)

The Mueller report thus focuses instead on “efforts to prevent disclosure of information about the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and senior campaign officials.”

But the report on this topic is deceptive. Ironically, as it attacks Donald Trump and top campaign officials for lying, the report itself lies about the issue the meeting addressed.

It wasn’t to provide dirt on Hillary Clinton, which the Russian lawyer did not have and never produced. That was a ploy by Robert Goldstone, a British music publicist whose job is to get what his clients want, in this case, a meeting. So, recklessly, he invented the idea of Clinton dirt as a bait-and-switch to get Trump’s people to come to it. He got the lawyer the meeting for her to lobby a potentially incoming administration against the Magnitsky Act, which is why she was in the United States in the first place.

The Magnitsky Act is a 2012 U.S. law that was promoted by William Browder, an American-born British citizen and hedge fund investor, who claimed his “lawyer” Sergei Magnitsky had been imprisoned and murdered because he uncovered a scheme by Russian officials to steal $230 million from the Russian Treasury. It sanctioned Russians he said were involved or benefitted from Magnitsky’s death. It has since been used by the U.S. to put sanctions on other Russians and nationals from other countries.

The lawyer lobbying against the act, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort that Browder’s story was fake, a smokescreen to block the Russians from going after him for multi-millions in tax evasion. She argued the Magnitsky Act was built on this fraud. Manafort’s notes, included in the Mueller Report, trace what she said.

The Trump people did nothing illegal to meet with her. Their problem was the exaggerating communications Goldstone sent them about Veselnitskaya having “dirt” on Clinton. (While U.S. election laws says it’s illegal for a campaign to receive “a thing of value” from a foreign source, it’s never been established by a court that opposition research fits that description, the Mueller Report admits. ) Veselnitskaya testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in November 2017 that Browder’s major American client, the Ziff brothers, had cheated on American and Russian taxes and contributed the “dirty money” to the Democrats.

The Mueller investigators appear not to have looked into her charges. The report promotes Browder’s fabrications, citing “the Magnitsky Act, which imposed financial sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian officials and which was named for a Russian tax specialist who exposed a fraud and later died in a Russian prison.”

Magnitsky’s mother in Nekrasov film.

But instead of his “lawyer” Magnitsky exposing Russian fraud, for which he was jailed and killed in prison, Magnitsky was actually Browder’s accountant who was detained under investigation for his part in Browder’s tax evasion and died of natural causes in prison, as Magnitsky’s own mother admits to filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov in the film “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes.”

Mueller’s investigators might have started with documents filed in U.S. federal court in the case of Veselnitskaya’s client, Prevezon, a Russian holding company that settled a civil-forfeiture claim by the U.S. government that linked it, without proof, to the tax fraud.

The documents include a deposition where Browder admits that the alleged “lawyer” Magnitsky did not go to law school nor have a law degree. Magnitsky’s own testimony file identifies him as an “auditor.”

Why does that matter? Because it was Browder’s red herring. Magnitsky had worked as Browder’s accountant since 1997, fiddling on Browder’s taxes on profits from sales of shares held by Russian shell companies run by his Hermitage Fund. He was not an attorney hired in 2007 to investigate and then expose a tax fraud against the Russian Treasury.

That fraud was exposed by Rimma Starova, the Russian nominee director of a British Virgin Islands shell company that held Hermitage’s reregistered companies and who gave testimony to Russian police on April 9 and July 10, 2008. It was reported by The New York Times and Vedomosti on July 24, 2008, months before Magnitsky mentioned it in an Oct. 7 interrogation.

Kremlin-connected?

The Mueller Report says Veselnitskaya promised dirt on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government support for Trump.” Two days before the meeting, Goldstone emailed Trump Jr. and said “the Russian government attorney” was flying in from Moscow. She had not been a government attorney since 2001, 15 years earlier.

I interviewed Veselnitskaya in New York in November 2016. She explained what she later told the Trump group, that Browder’s clients the Ziff Brothers had invested in Russian shares in a way that routed the money through loans so that they could evade U.S. taxes. [“Not invest – loans” in Manafort’s notes.]

The report says, “Natalia Veselnitskaya had previously worked for the Russian government and maintained a relationship with that government throughout this period of time.” Later it says that from 1998 to 2001, she had worked as a prosecutor for the “Central Administrative District” of the Russian Prosecutor’s office. “And continued to perform government-related work and maintain ties to the Russian government following her departure.” We are meant to presume, with no evidence, as the media does – that means “a Kremlin-connected lawyer.”

When Trump Jr asked for evidence, how the payments could be tied to the Clinton campaign, she said she couldn’t trace them, according to the Mueller Report.

Then she turned to the Magnitsky Act. The report repeats earlier fakery: “She lobbied and testified about the Magnitsky Act, which imposed financial sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian officials and which was named for a Russian tax specialist who exposed a fraud and later died in a Russian prison.” Magnitsky did not expose a fraud. Rimma Starova did.

A footnote in the report said: “Browder hired Magnitsky to investigate tax fraud by Russian officials, and Magnitsky was charged with helping Browder embezzle money.” Browder did not hire Magnitsky to investigate the fraud. Magnitsky had been the accountant in charge of Hermitage since 1997, 10 years before the fraud. Embezzlement refers to Browder shifting assets out of Russia without paying taxes.

But the investigation’s focus was not on Browder’s fakery — the substance of the Trump Tower meeting — but on the communications organizing the event. The section on obstruction says Trump became aware of “emails setting up the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians who offered derogatory information on Hillary Clinton as ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.’”

That would have been Goldstone’s inflated promises.

The report says “at the meeting the Russian attorney claimed that funds derived from illegal activities in Russia were provided to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.” Trump Jr. told a White House press officer that “they started with some Hillary thing, which was bs and some other nonsense, which we shot down fast.”

As Veselnitskaya told me, she knew the Ziffs made contributions to Democrats. She probably started with that. Manafort’s notes don’t report a “Hillary thing,” but are about Browder and the Ziffs.

On the issue of Browder, the Magnitsky story and the essence of the Trump Tower meeting, the Mueller Report is a deception intended to keep the myth of collusion in the air while dismissing that any collusion took place.

Mueller Report deals with Browder and Trump Tower mostly in Part I, pages 110-123, and Part II, pages 98-107.

William Browder’s 7-hour deposition on April 15, 2015 uncovered many disturbing facts about his narrative of events as they relate to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, for whom the Magnitsky Act was named.

he long-lasting, seemingly impenetrable, indestructible scandal of hedge fund tax cheat Bill Browder – and Magnitsky Act economic warfare legislation he’s spearheading globally – may have suffered a fatal wound. Appearing before a European Union (EU) committee in recent days, Bill Browder was one of the panelists chosen to speak to the politicians about potential Magnitsky laws becoming written and implemented for the entire European Union.

An EU parliament member from France, Nicolas Bay, pushed Browder on documentary filmmaker and director Andrei Nekrasov’s “Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes”, which portrays the director’s journey from first believing Browder’s story of what happened to Browder’s “lawyer” (actually, his accountant) Sergei Magnitsky – to understanding Browder is a historic-magnitude fraud.

Mr. Bay suggested there is an unresolved controversy with regard to Browder’s narrative powerfully raised in Nekrasov’s highly-censored/blacklisted documentary, and pushed Browder for an explanation of why he seems intentionally avoiding a debate with Nekrasov. Tellingly Browder, – in what is likely a preconceived or prepared, well-thought-out response anticipated before the EU discussion should “Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes” and/or Nekrasov have become brought up – answers Mr. Bay with allegations of Bay’s “Russian involvement” and claims that Nekrasov put out a slander film on Browder for money.

Here are comments on the video of the EU discussion, the portion featuring Browder’s rare public confrontation engagement with May, posted on YouTube at ‘Nicholas Wilson’ channel:

“Guy acts like he’s above it all, right after admitting he went out of his way to prevent another man’s film being shown anywhere in the world. “Putin” and “Russia” are only a smear among those in power. Majority of the public don’t care. The Skripal story is a joke. The dead Russian journalist turned out to be a Ukrainian lie. Russia accused of influencing US election turned out to be an insignificant number of memes.

“Meanwhile, US declares its own un-elected puppet leader of Venezuela. France encourages protests in Venezuela while shooting, gassing and finding ways to prevent its own. And the U.K. demands an immediate election while denying one to its own people despite disaster after disaster. These, bankers, liars and hypocrites need to be exposed and never forgotten until they’re in prison for their crimes which have killed people.”

(Reply) “Amen.”

*

“Thanks for posting this. Con-man Bill Browder’s engaged in scams since, at least, the 1990s when under the wing of Edmond Safra. Safra’s Republic National Bank of New York (RNBoNY) and Beny Steinmetz bankrolled Hermitage in Moscow – with Browder up-front – in 1996. Following Safra’s death in Monaco in 1999, RNBoNY’s absorbed by HSBC. The Magnitsky hoax is a geopolitical scam – undone by the source documents (corporate, court, police+ filings). “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes”, the documentary of Andrei Nekrasov and Norway’s Oscar-nominated Piraya Film AS is a brilliant expose of Browder and reveals how this scam has been furthered by politicians, bureaucrats, press+ in Europe and America. Great to see Browder, and his hoax, is unraveling.”

*

“Thanks for the Browder background J’accuse. It really is a scam of MONUMENTAL proportions; the fact that the mainstream is studiously ignoring it just showcases how bankrupt the system is.”

(Reply) “This truly is a failure of the press. Con-men do what they do. Lying comes naturally to Browder and co. What’s missing is a functioning media to act as check-and-balance. I’ve been investigating white collar / organized crime since the 1980s (see https://jaccuse.news ). The networks being used in this current hoax pre-date con-man Browder – and they’ll post-date him. I’m hopeful this year we’ll see the truth exposed to enough of a global audience that Browder himself will lose his value to the criminal and political networks for which he’s fronting at present. With even more exposure, the corrupt enterprise itself may suffer greater structural dismantling. The world will be a better, safer, place with each step to shut down this operation.’

*

“Thanks for putting this on line, so everyone can hear his vile accusations with zero evidence.”

*

“Creepy Bill Browder is starting to come unhinged. In the last few days, he told Danske bank that the French had reopened an investigation, when they had not. Danske postponed a bond sale and the markets were sent into a spin. Then, just to make himself more popular, he accused members of the British House of Lords of money laundering, which while probably true, the fact that his bank of choice HSBC, settled a tax debt from one of Browder’s companies for tens of millions of dollars. Now this rant, its possible he is going to crash and burn, in which case it won’t be Putin who pays him a visit, but he might get Novichoked, and serve a purpose if Brexit falls apart.”

*

“Who is asking Browder the question? N Bey???? Trying to find his name…”

“Great to have a European Parliament member ask this crook a question. You can see that he is unable and unwilling to ‘engage’ – anyone who has seen the film sees very clearly how Nekrasov at first thought Browder was speaking the truth, and he slowly uncovers, to his own dismay, how Browder is a liar, misrepresents facts, and organized a major heist against the Russian state. Browder was supported here by Guy Verhofstadt, a guy who in this way showed his colors fully as well as totally owned by money-laundering banks such as HSBC.”

*

To watch the shocking, extraordinary film “Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes” by Andrei Nekrasov, people can purchase and download at MagnitskyAct.com.

How much longer can the enormously important, global-consequence Bill Browder-Magnitsky Act scandal remain concealed and survive?

Producers Of “The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire” Show The Way.

A film by Michael Oswald – One hour, 18 minutes

he British Empire transformed from a colonial power to a financial power. The global secrecy for the world’s elites began in earnest during the 1960s in the British offshore colony of Cayman Islands, one of many smaller remaining British colonies to eventually host tax-evasion “sweet-spots” for global elites.

The people choosing to hide their money, profits and assets are figures well-known and well-heeled in realms political, business, entertainment, sports, mafia/criminal, etc., for the direct purpose of evading paying their fair share of taxes, as most everyday citizens do. Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) serves as one of the prime historical examples of the fraudulent, criminal, war-making, negative consequential outgrowths of the bank secrecy historical phenomenon.

Trusts as perhaps the major “tool of all tools” for those various elites become discussed during the documentary, while illustrating potentially $50 trillions of dollars in trust assets moved to tax haven jurisdictions, effectively an impenetrable structure for tax officials in nations where the assets originated, due to engineered, intentionally highly complex schemes devised by management and employees at the world’s most powerful accounting, banking and legal companies.

Politicians like former British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose own father hid wealth in tax havens, tell the people of their nations one thing – “We must end tax evasion by establishing 100% transparency” – while in reality no actions are ever subsequently taken to alter or resolve the problem of tax evasion.

This describes a perfect example of individuals “speaking with forked tongue”, illustrated shortly after a major 2013 leak of British Virgin Islands (BVI) banking records received worldwide media coverage, where David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama practiced their coordinated, feigned “forked tongues” public outrage charade.

After their public relations joint press event in response to the BVI scandal, neither Cameron nor Obama acted in any substantial ways to diminish or end tax evasion. In other words, five years ago in 2013, Cameron and Obama lied through their teeth. The same goes for the later Panama Papers release, among other revelations.

Men and women who speak out on the $trillion per year global tax evasion industry most often are on the receiving end of harsh retribution, – evolved in manners which are very subtle, but nonetheless, thus far, effective in smashing down the voices of those willing to fight against historic-level corruption fueled by sheer greed.

Like men and women who speak out strongly against other major historically important lies such as the 9/11 deception, the Bill Browder-Magnitsky Act scandal, false flag chemical weapons operations in Syria, etc., taking on the world’s most wealthy and powerful with regard to tax havens is difficult because of complexity surrounding the issue(s) and less-than-ideal public awareness, and so extremely challenging.

Speaking of the 9/11 deception, clearly the most important scandal of the 21st century … after 17 years the men and women of the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry have initiated a guaranteed legal path toward uncovering the harsh truth.

Despite Bill Browder and his legal team’s efforts to suppress the truth … found in Andrei Nekrasov’s brilliant film “The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes”, Alex Krainer’s book “Grand Deception: The Bill Browder Hoax”, and Browder’s shell company records in Cyprus sought by Russian tax officials, the Browder-Magnitsky scandal – a close 2nd behind 9/11 on the list of important stories of the 21st century – is rapidly coming into the awareness of more and more people the world over.

The obstacles to total public awareness of secret, dangerous, harmful actions carried out by the handful comprising the world’s elites for decades are certainly not insurmountable.

The morally-motivated people behind production of “The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire”, along with men and women working to expose related major historical events and criminal phenomena, are taking concrete, positive action – and leading the way.

“Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.”

– WILLIAM GODWIN (1756-1836) English minister, reformer, philosopher

(Malta, May 2018) Swiss bank whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld points to a WikiLeaks published document, that “… nobody was supposed to see.”

wiss bank whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld praised the work of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange recently at an event in Malta. Like Julian Assange, Mr. Birkenfeld was targeted for persecution after revealing inconvenient truth concerning corruption and imprisoned.

Brad Birkenfeld wrote an extremely revealing book about his extraordinary experiences in the highest levels of global banking, government protection of the white-collar criminal rich and powerful, and all things corrupt in the arena of top-floor finance titled “Lucifer’s Banker”. Men and women interested in reading his book and learning more about the dark side of international banking can visit Mr. Birkenfeld’s website: https://LucifersBanker.com/

The following short presentation in Malta by Brad Birkenfeld in May 2018 is particularly relevant as it relates to the current uncertain situation of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Being a major whistleblower himself, Mr. Birkenfeld has focused his efforts on supporting and protecting fellow truth tellers – including Julian Assange, who he’s worked with personally – through advocacy for strong legislation around the entire world.

Reports suggest Mr. Assange faces an imminent eviction from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has been held a virtual prisoner for more than 6 years. In the eyes of people familiar with the highly controversial situation with huge ramifications for journalism and free speech ideals, the most objectionable, bewildering aspect of Julian Assange’s years-long legal nightmare is the fact he has not been convicted of any crime – whatsoever.

***

Brad Birkenfeld calls attention to his association with and appreciation of Julian Assange toward the end of his presentation:

“But I’ll just end in one note … Is that when I met with Julian Assange in London – and I think this poor guy is going to be extradited out of the Ecuadorian Embassy soon – he told me a situation with respect to why this was going on with WikiLeaks, and how it paralleled with my whistleblowing – historic whistleblowing – at UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland). And he said ‘Look, some people have a gut instinct to do the right thing. Do you have the gut instinct to do the right thing if you see something wrong – to report something?’ ”

Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in a car bombing on October 17, 2017 in Malta.

“I was fortunate enough to meet Daphne (investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia) here in Malta before her demise, her murder, and this was a very unfortunate thing for Malta. And we talked for a little bit about this situation, about transparency, and about offshore banking and so forth. And it brought it home to light that I had moved here from the United States and I live here in Malta.”

“And I got to know her very little, but we had this chat before she was murdered. And I think it’s important to understand her demise is so important for all of us, because she was a crusader; she was a fighter. Just as I was a fighter; just as Julian Assange is a fighter; Mr. Snowden’s a fighter.”

“You may not like some of these people; you may have an opinion, and that’s fine. But what their end result was … was better for all of society. And I think that’s the message here: you’re either part of the problem, or you’re part of the solution. Which one is it? (Responds to member of audience) ‘Yeah … there you go. Exactly. Precisely.’ And that’s where whistleblowing is paramount.”

“And I’ll sort of end on the whistleblowing note, because they think it’s … It’s important. I go around and lecture throughout Europe and Asia and America, and what I try to tell people is just think about it logically – if you’re not breaking the law you don’t need whistleblowers. Don’t break the law.”

“So, law enforcement should embrace whistleblowers, not attack them. They’re an extension of law enforcement. They do their job better, whether they’re understaffed, under budget, maybe even part of the problem. There are corrupt police out there in law enforcement. A whistleblower will come in and give you everything. Harry Markopolos – great friend of mine –, he exposed the (Bernie) Madoff fraud. He didn’t get paid anything, but he did the right thing. He yelled and screamed for a decade, until he did something about it.”

“So, the point I’m trying to make here is that whistleblowing … To protect whistleblowers – number one, and to compensate them – number two. And that’s a controversial part here in Europe, but it works. I’m a prime example of why it works. I even started whistleblowing before the program came in play, so it wasn’t about the money. Everyone says ‘Ah, you did it for the money’. Absolutely not. So my point is … Is that Europe needs to pass, and Asia needs to pass, positive whistleblowing laws to protect and compensate whistle blowers.”

“Why?”

“Because they make your life better; your children’s lives better; your grandchildren’s lives better. Or … we’ll just go and we’ll steal and cheat and lie, and we’ll just keep that going. So you have a choice. What society do you want to live in? So that’s why whistleblowing is so paramount.”

“And that’s why I go around lecturing and send the message out. Not just about what I did at UBS and in Switzerland, which was cataclysmic as I said before – but also because it might send a message to each and every one of you, and your children if you have children, that this is so important to go ahead and praise whistleblowing.”

“We’ve seen it time and time again. And as I said: if you’re not breaking the law you won’t need whistleblowers. So, let’s promote the whistleblowing angle, and let’s move forward to help everyone in that regard.”

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World Peace Is Possible

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